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Teradata Knowledge Share: Teradata Typical Questions Set-1

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Teradata Knowledge Share

Best Teradata Training Institute is Sri Vinay TechHouse. Note: Vinay Sir started a new institute VINAY TECH HOUSE exclusively f
TERADATA Classes & Projects at flat 608A ,NILGIRI BLOCK. Refer your friends for this new institute to get trained by Vinay Sir. Y
eligible for doing the latest projects for free of cost given by Vinay tech house. Regards - Moderator team

Tuesday, 4 October 2011

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Teradata Typical Questions Set-1

Followers
1.Definition of Teradata? Tell me important components of Teradata?
Definition:
It is an RDBMS that drives company's Datawarehouse,Datamart,OLTP,OLAP,DSS Appliances.
a.An "Open system which executes on UNIX MR-RAS(Discontinued in teradata 13),WIN2K, Suse Linux ETC & Above
OS.
b.Compatible with ANSI standards
c.Runs on Single or Multi nodes.
d.Built in Parallelism
e.Acts Like a Server.
New Featues (Teradata 13):
Designed with the below appliances.
a.Extreme Data warehouse 1550.
d.Active Enterprise Datawarehouse 5550 H,5555 C/H
c.Internet and E-business
d.Customer Relationship Management.
e.Datamart Appliance 2500,2550,2555

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List Of Contents::
2011 (15)
September (5)

Important Components:
a.PE(Parsing Engine )
b.Bynet
c.Amp (Access Module Processor)
d.VSS(Virtual Storage System) (from Teradata13)
e.Vdisk(Virtual Disk)
2.How to run the Teradata jobs in unix environment ?
At unix prompt,Please execute in the below way.
$Sh>BTEQ<[Script Path]>[Logfile Path]
or
$Sh>BTEQ<[Script Path] TEE [Logfile Path]
Not only these ways ,there are many ways.
Similarly to other utilities.

October (9)

Teradata Typical Questio

Top Ten New Features o

13.0.1

Teradata Version
Differences(V2R5,V2R
3)

Teradata Typical Questio

Teradata Typical Questio

Resume Format and Con

Informatica resume cont

Datastage resume Conte

3.There is a load to the Table every one hour and 24/7.Morning trafic is high, afternoon trafiic is less,
Night trafiic is high.According to this situation which Utility you use and how do you load,which
utility used?
Tpump is suggestable here
By Using packet size increasing or decreasing we can handle traffic.

Resume Content >10Yrs

November (1)
2012 (3)
2013 (1)

4.Fast Load Script is failed and error tables are available then how do you restart?
There are 2 ways
1.Incase of Old file to Run
Dont drop error tables simply rectify the error in the script or file and Run again.so that it runs from last configuration.
2.Incase of new file to Run
Drop Error tables
Try to run the script with only begin and end loading statements. ,so that it releases the lock on target table If possible
remove the record from fastlog table.
Run the script with new file freshly.

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5.What are the advantages of other ETL tools(Informatica,DataStage,SSIS etc...) than Teradata
Utilities or vice versa?
TD Utilities run faster than other ETL tools incase of File to Table(Import) or Table to File (Export) Operations. Inmod
and Outmod also help us to do better programing while Importing and Exporting.
Major advantages of Other ETL tools than TD Utilities:
1.Heterogeneous Sources and Destinations we can Operate. (Oracle,Sqlserver,Excel,Flat Files etc....)
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2.As they are providing full GUI support,degugging is so easier.

3.Reusability of components(Informatica:mapplets,worklets etc...) available in ETL tools so if we change in main
location automatically other applications(mappings) which are using these components can update instantly.
4.Pivoting(Normalization),Unpivot(Denormalization) we can implement very easily in ETL tools.
5.Caching is one more advantage when we work with a source (Heterogenous) which is not changing frequently.Some
times cache can be shared across applications etc....
6.Aborted in Phase 2 data acquisition completed in fastload?
Simply take Begin and End loading in scripts and Run again.so that it runs from Amp to table.
7.How do you Generate sequence at the time of Display?
By Using CSUM
8.How do you Generate Sequence in Teradata?
By Using Identity Column
1-for storing purpose using identity.
2-for display purpose using csum.
9.How do you load Multiple files to a table by using fast load scripts?
Remove End Loading statement in the script and Replace the file one by one in the script till last file and submit every
time so that data appended in Amp Level.For the last file specify End Loading statement in the script and Run.so that
it runs from Amp to table.
10.Why Multiload and Fastload does not supports SI,JI,RI and TRIGGERS?
Above all concepts require communication between Multiple Amps. As per Fastload and Multiload doesnot provide
any communication b/w multiple Amps and they Operate Independently.As concept is violating as well as it takes time
to implement the above operation they are not allowing them.
11.Why Multiload does not supports USI and supports NUSI?
Index subtable row is on the same Amp as the data row in NUSI.so it operates each Amp independently and in parallel.
12.While Executing MLOAD Client System Restarted?
We need to Manualy Submit the script,so that it loads data from last checkpoint.
13.While Executing MLOAD Teradata Server Restarted?
Along with the server MLAOD script will also restarted and Runs from last check point.
14.There is file it contains 100 records,need to load 60 records by skipping first 20 records and last 20
records.
use BTEQ Utility to do this task by Skip = 20 and Repeat 60 in script.
15.How to see current teradata version?
.SHOW VERSION
16.what is Node?
A Node is nothing but Collection of Hardware and Software components.Typically a Server is called as node.
17.What is PDE?
Parallel Data Extension
A software interface layer on top of the operating system that enables the database to operate in a parallel
environment. It was created by NCR to support the parallel environment.
18.What is Trusted parallel database (TPD)?
A database is called TPD if it runs under PDE.
Teradata is a database which runs under PDE.so we call Teradata as pure Parallel database or Trusted parallel
database.
19.What is channel driver?
A Software that communicates between the PEs and applications running on channel-attached clients.
20.What is Teradata Gateway?
Terdata Gateway software gives communication between the application and the PEs assigned to network-attached
clients. There is one Gateway per node.
21.What is Virtual disk?
A collection of Cylinders(physical disks) arranged in an Array fashion is called Vdisk or Virtual disk.Traditionally this
is called as disk Array or Array of disk.
22.what is Amp?
Access Module Processor
It is a Virtual processor responsible for managing one portion of the database(collection of virtual
disks).This portion is not sharable by any other AMP.so well call this Architecture as shared nothing Architecture.
Amp contains Database Manager subsystem and it performs the below operations
a.Performing DDL
b.Performing DML
c.Implementing Joins,Aggregations.
d.Applying and Releasing Locks etc.
23.What is Parsing Engine?

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PE is type of Vproc it takes SQL request and delivers SQL response.

It has software components to break SQL into steps, and send the steps to the AMPs.
Session Control
A session is nothing but logical connection between User and Application.Here it controls Authorization if its a Valid it
does log on otherwise log off.
Parser
checks syntactical errors
checks semantical errors
checks existence of objects.
Dispatcher
It takes set of request and keep in a queue ,delivers set of responses by keeping the same queue that means it does
request response flow control.
24.How many MAX session PE handles at a time?
PE handles MAX 120 sessions.
25.What is BYNET?
It acts like a "Message Communication" happens between Components.It is responsible for
1. Sending messages
2. Merging data
3.Sorting data
26.what is Clique?
It prevents from Node Failure.
a.A Clique is a collection of Nodes will Share Common Disk drives.
b.whenever any node went down automatically Vprocs all migrate from fail node to other node to retrieve data from
common disk drives.
27.List different types of LOCKS in teradata?
Teradata can apply four types of LOCKS
a.Access Lock
b.Read lock
c.Write Lock
d.Exclusive Lock
28.At what level teradata can apply a LOCK?
1.Database level lock --- All objects inside database will be locked.
2.Table level -- All rows inside a table will be locked.
3,Row hash level lock-- Only Corresponding row will be locked.
29.How many AMPs involved in case of Primary Index?
Its always one AMP.
30.what about UPSERT command in teradata?
UPSERT means update else insert.
In Teradata we have this option.
31.What is Advantage of PPI?
Mainly we use for Range based data storing or category based Data storing.
Range queries don't have to utilize a Full Table Scan.Its directly goes to the corresponding partition and skips other
partitions.
Fastload and Multiload work with PPI tables, but not with all Secondary Indexes.
32.what is the size of BYTEINT,SMALLINT,INTEGER?
BYTEINT - 1 Bytes - 8 bits -- > -128 to 127
SMALLINT - 2 bytes - 16 bites: ---> -32768 to 32767
INTEGER - 4 BYTES - 32 BITS ---> -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647
33.Difference between user and database in teradata?
Database User
A database is Passive Repository User is a Active.
It stores all database objects It stores any object such as table,macro,view etc.
It does not contain Password. It contains password
34..Difference between primary key and Primary Index?
Primary Index Primary Key
It is mandatory It is optional
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Limit of 64 columns/table No limit

Allows Nulls & Duplicates Doesnt allows
It is physical mechanism Logical mechanism
Effects Data Distribution Does not effect Data Distribution
35.What is the use of Spool Space?
Teradata spool space is unused Perm space that is used for running queries.Teradata recommend 20 % of the available
perm space is allocated for spool space.
This is used to hold intermittent results of the queries and volatile tables.
36.What is the need of Performance tuning?
To identify bottlenecks and to resolve it we go for Performance tuning.
Bottle neck is not an error but it causes system delay in Performance.
example: There is a query it is suppose to run in 2 mins but executed for half an hour and finally succeeded.
In this situation we need to identify bottlenecks and resolve it.
To Identify bottlenecks we go for
a.Explain Request Modifier
b.Teradata Visual Explain
c.Performance monitor
d.Teradata Manager
37.Define Explain plan?
Explain plan displays the execution plan of SQL statement that is going to be executed by the database.This plan
will be specified by the component called optimiser.Generaly it displays below information
a.Number of Amps
b.Amount of spool memory it is occupying.
c.Number of Rows its affecting.
d.Type of Join strategy it is taking.
e.Time it takes to execute.
f.Locks it is Using etc.
Syntax : EXPLAIN
Example : EXPLAIN SEL * FROM PARTY;
38.What is Collect statistics?
Collect stats just derives the data demographics of the table.
Collect stats is an important concept in teradata, Collect stats gives PE to come up with a plan with least cost plan for
an requested query.
Collect stats defines the confidence level of PE in estimating
"how many rows it is going to access ?
how many unique values does a table have , null values etc and all this info is stored in data dictionary.
Once you submit a Explain plan query in TD the parsing engine checks if the stats are available for the requested table
.
If collected stats available already PE generates a plan with "high confidence" .
If Collect stats unavailable gives "low confidence" .
Syntax : COLLECT STATISTICS ON INDEX/COLUMN NAME
39.What is Least Cost Plan?
It executes in shortest path with less time.
40.What is Highest Cost Plan?
It executes in Longest path with more time.
41.How many Confidence Level present?
a.Low
b.No
c.High
d.Join
42. If collect stats is not done on the table what will happen?
Teradata uses a cost based optimizer and cost estimates are done based on statistics.
So if you donot have statistics collected then optimizer will use a Dynamic AMP Sampling method to get the stats. If
your table is big and data was unevenly distributed then dynamic sampling may not get right information and your
performance will suffer.
43.What are the 5 phases in a MultiLoad Utility?
* Preliminary Phase Basic Setup *
* DML Phase Get DML steps down on AMPs*
* Data Acquisition Phase Send the input data to the AMPs and sort it*
* Application Phase Apply the input data to the appropriate Target Tables*
* End Phase Basic Cleanup*

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44.What are the MultiLoad Utility limitations?

MultiLoad is a very powerful utility; it has following limitations:
* MultiLoad Utility doesnt support SELECT statement.
* Concatenation of multiple input data files is not allowed.
* MultiLoad doesnt support Arithmatic Functions i.e. ABS, LOG etc. in Mload Script.
* MultiLoad doesnt support Exponentiation and Aggregator Operators i.e. AVG, SUM etc. in Mload Script.
* MultiLoad doesnt support USIs (Unique Secondary Indexes), Refrential Integrity, Join Indexes, Hash Indexes and
Triggers.
* Import task require use of PI (Primary Index).

45.What are TPUMP Utility Limitations?

Following are the limitations of Teradata TPUMP Utility:
* Use of SELECT statement is not allowed.
* Concatenation of Data Files is not supported.
* Exponential & Aggregate Operators are not allowed.
* Arithmatic functions are not supported.
46.Explain Teradata Competetive Advantages detail?
1.Automatic,Even Data Distribution
In Teradata Even uniform or Parallel or Random distrubution is Automatic.
2.High Scalability
If you Increase the number of Nodes or users or work teradata does not sacrifice any performance and it scales
Linearly.we are calling this scalabilty as linear scalability.
3.Mature Optimizer
As we are having powerful optimiser in teradata it supports 64 joins/query, 64 subquery/query,
formating commands and aggregate commands.
4.Models the business
Teradata supports any business models for star,snowflake schema,Hybrid schema,Normalisation etc
5.Low Cost Tco(Total cost of Ownership)
Its easy to Install,Manage,work.
Full Support Gui and Cheaper in price.
47.How do you set the session mode parameters in BTEQ?
.set session transaction ANSI-----> this is to set ANSI mode
.set session transaction BTET-----> this is to set Teradata transaction mode.
These commands have to be entered before logging to the session.

48.How Teradata makes sure that there are no duplicate rows being inserted when its a SET table?
Teradata will redirect the new inserted row as per its PI to the target AMP (on the basis of its row hash value), and if it
find same row hash value in that AMP (hash synonyms) then it start comparing the whole row, and find out if
duplicate.
If its a duplicate it silently skips it without throwing any error.
49.List types of HASH functions used in teradata?
There are HASHROW, HASHBUCKET, HASHAMP and HASHBAKAMP.
The SQL hash functions are:
HASHROW (column(s))
HASHBUCKET (hashrow)
HASHAMP (hashbucket)
HASHBAKAMP (hashbucket)
50.what is derived table?
a.It stores intermediate results and calculations.
b.You can specify derived table in an SQL statement(Preferrably Select).
c.This table created and dropped as a part of the query.
d.Its stored under spool memory.
e.Once the query finishes execution table is not available.
f.This types of tables are called as Inline Query tables.

Posted by Sir - Students at 22:08

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5 comments:
Mary 19 May 2012 at 02:08
Hello, How do I get in touch with you? There is no email or contact info listed .. please advise .. thanks .. Mary. Please contact me
maryregency at gmail dot comHello, How do I get in touch with you? There is no email or contact info listed .. please advise ..
thanks .. Mary. Please contact me maryregency at gmail dot com
Reply

msairakesh 19 June 2012 at 21:50

Hi vinay,
how can we pass parametrs in fastload,in so many interviws i face this question,so give me the reply as early as possible.
Reply

Sandeep Ganga 1 October 2013 at 05:30

i wanna know the reasons why AMPS,disk drives and all fails...expecting reasons other than workload and powersupply reasons
Reply

ravi kanth 9 March 2015 at 10:07

can you please send teradata notes to my email
Reply Delete

ravi kanth 9 March 2015 at 10:08

my email raviminus@gmail.com
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